Ray Fowler .org

Justin Taylor wrote an excellent article on Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem complete with striking illustrations from the newly released ESV Study Bible. Here is just one snippet from this fascinating article.

Now to get a sense of how massive this was, take a look at the illustration below, showing the entire Temple Mount. According to many scholars, the corner closest to you is the “pinnacle of the Temple” where Satan tempted Jesus — a frighteningly high point that created a 450-foot drop down to the valley below (essentially equivalent to standing on top of a 45-story building and being dared to jump). It was probably near this place — in front of the Royal Stoa — that Jesus cleansed the Temple from moneychangers who were turning a place of prayer into a den of thieves.

                                    (Click image to enlarge)

Yesterday’s message was called Christian Finances in Troubled Times, taken from various scriptures. The main idea of the message was how we should handle our finances as Christians during troubled times. Here is a brief outline of the message:

I. Be joyful in God. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
    A. Though the future looks bleak
    B. Though the present disappoints
    C. Though your past reserves are spent

II. Practice good Christian stewardship.
    A. Give faithfully. (Matthew 6:19-21; 1 Corinthians 16:2)
    B. Spend carefully. (Luke 12:15)
    C. Save wisely. (Genesis 41:28-38; Proverbs 6:6-8)

III. Trust God to meet your needs.
    A. Ask God’s help. (James 4:2; Philippians 4:6-7)
    B. Don’t confuse wants with needs. (Philippians 4:19)
    C. Trust God’s promises. (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Here’s some good advice from James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Fellowship at Straight Up, a new blog by pastors for pastors. Question: Should a sermon resolve every issue in the text? (Visit the link for the video clip.)

I don’t think that the sermon needs to resolve every single tension and answer every question that the text raises. I think that I will say that my intellectual curiosity greatly exceeds my people’s capacity to listen, and it grieves me when I hear preaching and teaching that tries to nail down every single corner, answer every issue.

I love commentaries like that, and I love to study and answer all the questions that are in mind so that I can preach with confidence. But I think a lot of times I refer to this as not preaching your homework. And you need to know what it says, and you need to have it all nailed down according to the dictates of your own conscience, but then you need to carve out of that the fillet part which is what the people need for their own souls.

I do actually struggle with preaching that overly intellectualizes the text rather than forming it into a meal that actually will feed the souls of the people.

Gov. Palin released her 2006 and 2007 tax returns last week. Paul Caron over at the TaxProf compiles the main information from all four candidates onto one handy chart.

There seems to be a fairly wide spectrum in both reported income and charitable giving.

Related posts:

• Click here for Obama’s Tax Returns
• Click here for Hillary Clinton’s Tax Returns
• Click here for Britney Spears’ Budget.
• Click here for more posts on politics.

Andreas Köstenberger reports on the Berlin Declaration, which addresses the issue of the uniqueness of Christ and Jewish evangelism.

An international task force of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) met on the issue of the uniqueness of Christ and Jewish evangelism in Berlin, Germany, from August 18-22, 2008 to consider how the Christian community might express genuine love for the Jewish people, especially in Europe. Participants included Christians from Germany and Messianic Jews.

You can read the full document at the World Evangelical Alliance site. The document ends with the following call for action:

Therefore, as Christians concerned for the well being and salvation of the Jewish people, we call for:

• Respect for religious conviction and liberty that allows frank discussion of religious claims
• Repentance from all expressions of anti-Semitism and all other forms of genocide, prejudice and discrimination
• Recognition of the uniqueness of Christ as the crucified, resurrected and divine Messiah who alone can save from death and bring eternal life
• Reconciliation and unity amongst believers in Jesus
• Renewed commitment to the task of Jewish evangelism

Related post: The Gospel and the Jewish People

I first heard this fun, frolicking, alliterative version of “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” back in the 1980’s when Jack Hayford read it out loud on his radio program. I was living in California at the time and really enjoyed Hayford’s preaching. I happened to tape the show and wrote the words down later. With Tim Keller’s new book about to be released (The Prodigal God), I thought it would be fun to unfurl it here. Be sure to read it out loud for maximum effect!

MELODY IN F – Author unknown (possibly Phil Kerr – see comments below)

Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the farthings, and flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends.

Fleeced by his fellows in folly, and facing famine, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famishing, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from fodder fragments. “Fooey, my father’s flunkies fare far finer,” the frazzled fugitive forlornly fumbled, frankly facing facts.

Frustrated by failure, and filled with foreboding, he fled forthwith to his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he forlornly fumbled, “Father, I’ve flunked, and fruitlessly forfeited family favor.” The far-sighted father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch a fatling from the flock and fix a feast.

The fugitive’s fault-finding brother frowned on fickle forgiveness of former folderol. But the faithful father figured, “Filial fidelity is fine, but the fugitive is found! What forbids fervent festivity? Let flags be un-furled! Let fanfares flare!” Father’s forgiveness formed the foundation for the former fugitive’s future fortitude.

Note: See Luke 15:11-32 for the original version.

Related post: Parable of the Prodigal Puppy

This gorgeous picture of autumn leaves in Quebec brought to mind the following two poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889).

“PIED BEAUTY” – by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
    For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
        For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
    Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
        And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
    Whatever is fickle, frecklèd (who knows how?)
        With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                                                          Praise him.

GOD’S GRANDEUR – by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Click here for more poems.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

So, how are the fall colors where you live?

                      (Click on the picture for the “big” version.)

Autumn forest in the region of Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada. The hills of the Charlevoix region along the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec province are dominated by a mixed forest of deciduous trees and conifers. (© Yann Arthus-Bertrand; From The Big Picture: Earth From Above)

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Related post: Some Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems for Fall

You know it’s Monday when …

your trick-or-treat sack is filled with things that are good for you.

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Yesterday’s message was called Come to the Table, taken from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The message focused on the significance of gathering around the Lord’s Table for communion. Here is a brief outline of the message:

I. A place to remember Jesus
    A. Remember his sufferings. (1 Corinthians 11:24)
    B. Remember his death on the cross. (1 Corinthians 11:25)
    C. Remember why he did it – for our sins. (Matthew 26:28)

II. A place to celebrate God’s forgiveness and grace
    A. Thank God for the forgiveness of sins. (1 Corinthians 11:25)
    B. Marvel in God’s gracious invitation to come. (John 6:35-37)

III. A place to share in Christian fellowship
    A. We share in fellowship with Christ. (Psalm 34:8; 1 Peter 2:2-3)
    B. We share in fellowship with each other. (1 Corinthians 10:17)

IV. A place to anticipate Christ’s return
    A. Jesus proclaimed the coming of God’s kingdom. (Luke 22:18)
    B. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Howard Shore discusses working on the score for the upcoming Hobbit film. “It’s fantastic guide for me to be able to go back to Middle Earth and create more music , ’cause these films, the films, are placed before Fellowship of the Ring, so I have to go back into Middle Earth a little earlier and pick up my writing, and write a piece that would grow and take you right into Fellowship of the Ring.”

Ray Pritchard talks about the center of God’s will. “Are you in the center of God’s will for your life? The answer is no because there is no such thing as the ‘center’ of God’s will … That’s an expression we’ve made up to describe a perfectionistic view of life that no one this side of heaven can ever truly attain. The real question is, are you willing to do God’s will as it is revealed to you, one step at a time?”

Tim Etherington blogs about not being a blogger. “I think ‘blogger’ has become something more than it once was. The most ‘successful’ blogs have daily updates, big followings and a lot of comment activity. That isn’t me and frankly, I’m not interested in that kind of a blog. I don’t want to be Justin Taylor or Tim Challies. I enjoy reading their blogs but don’t want to duplicate their success. So I’m just a guy with a blog, I’m not a blogger.”

Mark Shead suggests making a Not To Do List. “Your not to do list should contain the activities that you consistently find yourself doing that don’t contribute to your life in a productive way … By intentionally making a list of things that you are not going to do, you are better able to focus on tasks that add value … The point of a Not To Do list is to prioritize not just from the top down, but from the bottom up as well. What you don’t do is important because what you leave out makes way for things that are more important.”

Phil Ryken comments on the big and the small of the universe in relation to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Higgs particle: “No matter how small we go — and we are already at the point of almost unbelievably infinitesimal discovery — there is still something smaller to discover. Contrast this with the platform for an electronic game or other computer simulation. No matter how sophisticated the graphics, eventually you bump up against the limits of the program … But the world that God has made constantly opens out into new discoveries, both in the far reaches of space and in the inner sanctum of the atom. Whether we go big or small, the universe that God has made continues to defy our full comprehension or scrutiny — a testimony to the infinitely perfect mind of our maker.”

I am teaching my oldest son church history this year, so I just had to put this one up. (Perhaps he can use it to study for his final.) I am not sure whether they should call it the Modern Church Historical or the Modern Church Hysterical!

(Video length: 2:34)

Parody of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Modern Major General covering the entire history of the church. From Paul Aldrich Comedy. (HT: MMI)